I focus almost exclusively on PvP, whether solo, small gang, or large bloc warfare. In the past, I've been a miner, mission runner, and faction warfare jockey. I'm particularly interested in helping high-sec players get into 0.0 combat.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Lessons: “But That Sh!t Ain’t the Truth”

Last night, I was roaming through Minmatar FW space in my Firetail when
I came across a Slasher in a small complex.
I dutifully enter the site and saw him fairly close to the beacon, so I
immediately webbed and scrammed him and began to attack. He naturally locked me first and tried to
pull range, but I overloaded my AB. To
keep him close.

Just then, I saw a Harpy appear on a 1 million km short-scan,
indicating he was sitting on the other side of the gate. I started to worry a little, so I overloaded
my guns to end the fight faster. By this
point, we were both webbed and I was at around 2,500 m from him, so I aligned
out slowly. I figured that if the Harpy
came to help him, I could warp immediately, provided I had time to kill the
Slasher. A quick look at the info of the
other two people in system suggested that the Harpy was not friendly to the
Slasher.

As soon as he popped, I hit warp and left the plex, but the
Harpy never entered. When all was said
and done, he had me at about 50% shield.
A good showing for a Slasher against a Firetail, I’d say (they both
crumple once shields expire). GFs were
exchanged in local. I particularly
admired his decision to fight outclassed.

As I was moving through a planet, I thanked the Harpy pilot for letting
us finish. It was a generous thing for
him to do, particularly since he could have come in and killed both of us
fairly easily. He replied with a, “No
problem. Who won?” and we started
chatting about the fight in local. The
Slasher even got in on the conversation.

All this time, my shields were slowly replenishing, and I decided to
reward the Harpy for his good sportsmanship by warping back to the plex. Sure enough, he was inside, so I took the
gate and prepared to quickly pull range.

I landed about 3,000 off him and immediately hit my pre-overloaded AB,
pulling range to about 7 km. I started plinking
away at him with everything I had. He’d
try to get in close, but my Firetail was more agile and always stayed at least
6,200 from him. Eventually, he swapped
ammo types and started doing some damage.
Around 30% shield, I made the judgment that I wouldn’t last (I was
already overheating everything, but couldn’t tell if he was yet) so I waited
until I had a good escape vector then aligned out and warped off.

No kills, but I did successfully kite him for a while; one more medium
slot and I could have put a tracking disruptor on him; that’d have finished
it. It wasn’t a winning strategy in a
Firetail vs. a Harpy, though. Close, but
not quite.

But I had rewarded him for his e-honor in letting me finish my fight
with the Slasher, and showed some of my own in fighting him despite him
controlling initial range in a blaster boat and heading back when outmatched.

At least, that was my initial interpretation about the fight. But that sh!t ain’t the truth. The truth is we both acted entirely out of
self-interest.

When he landed on the acceleration gate and saw a Slasher and Firetail
inside, I’m sure he had a moment’s doubt on whether he should enter. In system were four people, including the
Slasher and another FW pilot of the same militia. Perhaps we were working together. And if so, those should would have two webs
and little trouble kiting him into oblivion.
Only when he saw a capsule appear on dscan did he know we were fighting
each other. Was his decision not to
enter the plex born from e-honor?
Probably not.

And on my end… I had just won the fight against a Slasher – a fight I
should have won, all things being equal.
I knew I’d have to kite a Harpy, because his blasters would hurt if I
drifted too close, and I knew the fight would be decided within the first few
moments. Could I pull range? But my strategy had played out perfectly the
first time, so I was feeling confident I could do it again. Then there was the isk differential… a Harpy
is twice as expensive as a Firetail, so even if I only win a third of the
engagements, I’d still be isk-neutral.

I could delude myself into thinking my motivation was purely driven by
honorable combat, or that my opponent had shown courtesy and integrity. But the truth was we were both seeking to
impose “the tyranny of evil men” seeking to maximize their kills and minimize
their losses.

At first, that thought made me a little sad for the state of Eve
players. But after a few hours’ worth of
reflection, I’m actually feeling pretty good about it. I made the right decisions subconsciously,
and that’s a very good thing, even if I bought into my own delusion about my
motives.

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